A timely guide to help you re-examine your ideas, encounter debate, and navigate a polarized world with calm rationality.
"Nerenberg offers ways to speak up, stand alone, and be true to ourselves. . . . Nerenberg’s timely and thought-provoking analysis is sure to spark discussion." – Booklist
Trust Your Mind takes you on a stunning tour of self-silencing, groupthink, and their antidote: critical reasoning. From conducting in-depth interviews to uncovering scientific research and sharing her own personal story, bestselling author Jenara Nerenberg offers searing insights on how to identify and exit everyday extremism and transform fear and hesitation into courageous dialogue that embraces dissent.
If you’ve ever felt suddenly silenced or taken over by your own self-censorship, Trust Your Mind has been praised as “compelling, lucid and timely” by social psychologist Ethan Kross and hailed as “a bold call to think deeper and speak truer” by social psychologist Kurt Gray for how the book reinvigorates an ethic of pluralism at a time when respect for differing viewpoints is narrowing:
- Contradictory ideas spark hysteria and backlash—resulting in mobbing and “cancel culture”
- A “wrong” remark or comment, no matter how seemingly innocent, gets twisted and results in banishment
- Polarization and pressure to conform to “the group”—friends, families, workplaces, and communities—fuels alienation and threatens the fabric of a connected society
Trust Your Mind guides you along the difficult path toward critical thinking and illuminates:
- The origins of self-silencing culture and how to counter the devastating loss of independent thought
- The inner workings of critical reasoning and how to “come down to earth” away from everyday extremist thinking
- How to forge existential survival skills and what Nerenberg calls “an emotional backbone"
Communication has become increasingly divisive; Nerenberg calmly shows readers how to walk through discomfort, stay grounded in one’s own viewpoint while encountering opposition, and stay connected. To examine and communicate one’s own ideas—like a deep-sea diver, investigator or anthropologist—is a vital, strategic skill and exploration for individuals in the 21st century.